Striking A Specific Body Part

As it mentions in the DMG, again under "Hitting a Specific Target," the normal AD&D® game is not geared toward a hit-location system which chronicles where every blow lands and which body parts get injured. We'll be presenting some options for that sort of thing later in this chapter, but this section concerns something slightly different.

Monsters often have body parts or features with extraordinary or magical effects; examples include the eyes of the beholder, tentacles of the carrion crawler, individual heads of the chimera, and so on. Many animated statues are motivated by a medallion, inscription, or imbedded gem.

A hero can take a called shot to attack those very specialized locations; this is a very heroic thing to do. It's up to the DM to determine how much damage such body parts can take; some will take as little as 1 point of damage before being destroyed, while others may be expressed in fractions of the creature's normal hit point total.

Table of Contents